Matisse: Painter as Sculptor - Looking at Sculpture

Known primarily for his beautiful paintings, drawings, and works on paper, Henri Matisse was also an accomplished sculptor whose radical style left lasting marks on modern art history. In 2007 the Baltimore Museum of Art hosted the first major U.S. examination of Matisse’s sculpture in nearly 40 years. This exhibition assembled more than 150 works in a variety of media to illustrate his inventiveness, dexterity, and historical significance. The exhibition was also presented at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Dallas Museum of Art.

The exhibition featured an interactive touch-screen display that encouraged visitors to be active in the process of observing a sculpture. The Interactive allows viewers to move the sculpture, change the lighting, and look at it in both profile and contour mode. This allowed visitors to think about line, rotation, and Matisse's use of positive and negative space.

Matisse’s Aurora sculpture was laser scanned to create a 3D model. This model was prepared for real-time playback utilizing normal maps that create the illusion of a high-density model. A real-time shader that mimics Matisse’s contour line drawing style was programmed specifically for this project.